“As long as we are able to be extravagant,

we will be hugely and damply extravagant.

Then we will drop foil by foil to the ground.

This is our unalterable task, and we do it joyfully.

And they went on. “Listen, the heart-shackles

are not, as you think,

death, illness, pain, unrequited hope,

not loneliness,

but lassitude, rue, vainglory,

fear,

anxiety,

selfishness.

Their fragrance all the while rising

from their blind bodies, making me

spin with joy.”

–When The Roses Speak: Pay Attention, by Mary Oliver, Devotions

Audio: I read the poem